Scarlet is brilliant red color with a tinge of orange.[2][3][4] In the spectrum of visible light, and on the traditional color wheel, it is one-quarter of the way between red and orange, slightly less orange than vermilion.[5]

According to surveys in Europe and the United States, scarlet and other bright shades of red are the colors most associated with courage, force, passion, heat, and joy.[6] In the Roman Catholic Church, scarlet is the color worn by a cardinal, and is associated with the blood of Christ and the Christian martyrs, and with sacrifice.

This is a variation on the standard RGB or Hex combination that produces a truer Scarlet color on some monitors. It is slightly more orange than the standard Scarlet RGB value of 255, 36, 0, but does give a truer color on displays where the red dominates over the orange and would otherwise make the color appear more as a normal red rather than a genuine Scarlet.

The first recorded use of flame as a color name in English was in 1590.[10]

The source of this color is the ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Color Names (1955),[11] a color dictionary used by stamp collectors to identify the colors of stamps. A sample of the color "Flame" (color sample #34) is also displayed in the Dictionary online version.[12]

The word comes from the Middle English "scarlat", from the Old French escarlate, from the Latin "scarlatum", from the Persianسقرلاتsaqerlât. The term scarlet was also used in the Middle Ages for a type of cloth that was often bright red.[13] An early recorded use of scarlet as a color name in the English language dates to 1250.[14]

Scarlet has been a color of power, wealth and luxury since ancient times. Scarlet dyes were first mentioned in 8th century BC, under the name Armenian Red, and they were described in Persian and Assyrian writings. The color was exported from Persia to Rome. During the Roman Empire, it was second in prestige only to the purple worn by the Emperors. Roman officers wore scarlet cloaks, and persons of high rank were referring to as the coccinati, the people of red.[15]

The color is also mentioned several times in the Bible, both in the Old and New Testament; in the Latin Vulgate version of the book of Isaiah (1:18) it says, "If your sins be as scarlet (si fuerint peccata vestra ut coccinum) they shall be made white as snow", and in the book of Revelation (17:1-6) it describes the "Great Harlot" (meretricius magnus) dressed in scarlet and purple (circumdata purpura et coccino), and riding upon a scarlet beast (besteam coccineam).

The Latin term for scarlet used in the Bible comes from coccus, a "tiny grain". The finest scarlets in ancient times were made from the tiny scale insect called kermes, which fed on certain oak trees in Turkey, Persia, Armenia and other parts of the Middle East. The insects contained a very strong natural dye, also called kermes, which produced the scarlet color. The insects were so small they were thought to be a kind of grain. This was the origin of the expression "dyed in the grain." [16]

The early Christian church adopted many of the symbols of the Roman Empire, including the importance of the color scarlet. The flag of the Crusaders was a scarlet cross on a white background, with scarlet indicating blood and sacrifice. By a church edict in 1295, Cardinals of the church, second in authority to the Pope, wore red robes, but a red closer in color to the purple of the Byzantine Emperors, a color coming from murex, a type of mollusk. After the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453, however, the imperial purple was no longer available, and Cardinals began instead to wear scarlet made from Kermes.[17]

During the Middle Ages and Renaissance, scarlet was the color worn by Kings, princes and the wealthy, partly because of its color and partly because of its high price. The exact shade, which varied widely, was not as important as the brilliance and richness of the color. The finest scarlet, called scarlatto or Venetian scarlet, came from Venice, where it was made from kermes by a specific guild which closely guarded the formula. Cloth dyed scarlet cost as much as ten times more cloth dyed with blue.[18]

In the Middle Ages, scarlet also symbolized sin. The Whore of Babylon, depicted in a 14th-century French illuminated manuscript riding a scarlet beast. The woman appears attractive, but is wearing scarlet under her blue garment.

In the 16th century, an even more vivid scarlet began to arrive in Europe from the New World. When the Spanish conquistadores conquered Mexico, they found that the Aztecs were making brilliant reds from another variety of scale insect called cochineal, similar to the European kermes vermiilo, but producing a better red at a lower cost. The first shipments were sent from Mexico to Seville in 1523. The Venetian guilds at first tried to block the use of the cochineal in Europe, but before the century was over, it was being used to make scarlet dye in Spain, France, Italy, and Holland, and almost all the fine scarlet garments of Europe were made with cochineal.[19]

Scarlet was the traditional color of the British nobility in the 17th and 18th century. The members of the House of Lords wore red ceremonial gowns for the opening of Parliament, and today sit on red benches.

The red military uniform was adopted by the British Army in 1645, and was still worn as a dress uniform until the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914. Ordinary soldiers wore red coats dyed with madder, while officers wore scarlet coats dyed with the more expensive cochineal.[20] This led to British soldiers being known as red coats.

The Assumption, by Titian (1516-1518). The figures of God, the Virgin Mary and two apostles are highlighted by their scarlet costumes, painted with vermilion pigment from Venice.

The young Queen Elizabeth I (here in about 1563) liked to wear bright reds, before she adopted the more sober image of the Virgin Queen. Her satin gown was probably dyed with kermes.

Dyed feather headdress from the Aztec people of Mexico and Central America. For red they used cochineal, a brilliant scarlet dye made from insects.

A native of Central America collecting cochineal insects from a cactus to make red dye (1777). From the 16th until the 19th century, it was a highly profitable export from Spanish Mexico to Europe.

Rembrandt used carmine lake, made of cochineal, to paint the skirt of the bride in the painting known as "The Jewish bride" (1665-1669).

The scarlet heels of the shoes of King Louis XIV of France were symbols of his royal status.

Scarlet is the traditional color of the British nobility. Queen Anne addresses the House of Lords (1708-1714), whose members wear their red ceremonial robes.

From the 8th century until the early 20th century, the most important scarlet pigment used in western art was vermilion, made from the mineral cinnebar. It was used, along with red lake pigments, by artists from Botticelli and Raphael to Renoir. However, in 1919 commercial production began of an intense new synthetic pigment, cadmium red. made from cadmium sulfide and selenium. The new pigment became the standard red of Henri Matisse and the other important painters of the 20th century.

In the 20th century, scarlet also became associated with Revolution. Red flags had first been used as revolutionary emblems, symbolizing the blood of martyrs, during the French Revolution and Paris uprisings in 1848. Red became the color of socialism, then communism, and became the color of the flags of both the Soviet Union and Communist China. China still uses a scarlet flag; in Chinese culture red is also the color of happiness. Since the fall of the Soviet Union The flag of Russia is red, blue and white, the colors of the historic Russian flag from the time of Peter the Great, adapted by him from the colors of the Dutch flag.

In the early 20th century, the vivid synthetic scarlet pigment cadmium red became the standard red of Henri Matisse and other western artists.

A French soldier takes down a red flag from the barricades during the Paris uprising of 1848.

Scarlet fever is an infectious illness common among children between four and eight. It was once a major cause of death, but now can be treated with antibiotics. One symptom is a scarlet-colored tongue.

In academic dress in the USA, scarlet is used for hood bindings (borders) and, depending on the university or school, other parts of the dress (velvet chevrons, facings, etc.) to denote a degree in some form or branch of Theology (e.g., Sacred Theology, Canon Law, Divinity, Ministry).

In the Frenchacademic dress system, the five traditional fields of study (Arts, Science, Medicine, Law and Divinity) are each symbolized by a distinctive color, which appears in the academic dress of the people who graduated in this field. Scarlet is the distinctive color for Law. As such, it is also the color worn on their court dress by French high magistrates.

Traditional academic dress of a PhD candidate receiving his degree at McGill University.

The Scarlet Pimpernel was a popular play by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, first staged in London in 1903, about an English lord, Sir Percy Blakely{Blakeney}, who wore a disguise and rescued French nobles from the guillotine during the French Revolution. He was supported by a secret club, the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel, and left the red flower of that name as his calling card. The Baroness later converted her play into a highly successful novel, upon which several movies were based.

In the modern British army, scarlet is still worn by the Foot Guards, the Life Guards, and by some regimental bands or drummers for ceremonial purposes. Officers and NCOs of those regiments which previously wore red retain scarlet as the color of their "mess" or formal evening jackets. The Royal Gibraltar Regiment has a scarlet tunic in its winter dress.

The musicians of the United States Marine Corps Band wear red, following an 18th-century military tradition that the uniforms of band members are the reverse of the uniforms of the other soldiers in their unit. Since the US Marine uniform is blue with red facings, the band wears the reverse.

In the Roman Catholic Church, scarlet robes — symbolizing the color of the blood of Christ and the Christian martyrs — are worn by cardinals as a symbol of their willingness to defend their faith with their own blood. In the Lutheran tradition, scarlet is the color for paraments for Palm or Passion Sunday, and for all of Holy Week through Maundy Thursday.<Lutheran Book of Worship, Manual on the Liturgy, p. 25>

In countries that have traditionally been dominated by Christian ideas, scarlet is associated with lust for sexual outlets considered sinful by church groups, such as premarital sex and prostitution. The Book of Revelation refers to a the Whore of Babylon riding upon a "scarlet beast" and dressed in purple and scarlet.[24] The phrase Great Scarlet Whore has been used by Puritans in the 17th century, and the phrase The Scarlet Woman was used by many Protestants and later Mormons in North America well into the 20th century.[25][26][27] Scarlet and crimson are also linked to the Judeo-Christian concept of sin in in the book of Isaiah, rendered in the King James Version "though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."[28]

The connection of red or scarlet with sin was very common in Europe and America. Prostitutes were obliged to wear red in some European cities, and even today areas in European cities where prostitutes can work legally are known as red-light districts. Sex worker advocacy groups like the Scarlet Alliance use the striking colour to associate themselves with prostitution.

^Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930--McGraw Hill Color Sample of Scarlet: Page 25 Plate 1 Color Sample L12 (Scarlet is shown as being one of the colors on the right and bottom of the plate representing the most highly saturated colors between red and orange at a position one-fourth of the way between red and orange.)